AUSTIN - Two El Paso abortion clinics report that women appear to be crossing the border for do-it-yourself abortions - perhaps because of confusion over whether the El Paso clinics are open, an official said.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up a case in the coming weeks that would determine the constitutionality of a 2013 Texas law that places strict new regulations on abortion clinics.

Its provisions have been enforced and then stayed by the federal courts, forcing one of El Paso’s clinics to close, then open, then close and open again. The other clinic has remained open, but officials there say they’ll be forced to close if all of the abortion law’s requirements are enforced.

An administrator at the latter clinic said last week that confusion over whether El Paso clinics are open apparently has prompted some women to go to Juarez.

Gloria Martinez of Hilltop Women’s Reproductive Clinic said about 15 women had called the clinic and a sister facility in Santa Teresa, N.M., complaining of infections after taking drugs from Mexican pharmacies in an attempt to induce abortions.

“So now people are crossing the border and buying stuff, and calling us and asking if we can treat an infection,” Martinez said.

Martinez said the women had taken a drug called cytotec, which is also known as misoprostol.

Gerri Laster, executive administrator of El Paso’s other abortion clinic, Reproductive Services, said she hasn’t heard of any cases of infections reported to her clinic since it reopened on Sept. 29.

“I did hear more of it was going on when we were closed,” she said.

Pharmacies sell misoprostol for purposes other than use in abortions, such as to treat stomach ulcers.

Laster said using it alone to try to induce an abortion is dangerous.

“I think they are getting it from the pharmacy and they’re kind of telling them how to take it,” instead of doing so under the supervision of a doctor, Laster said.

In the United States, the great majority of abortions are performed early in pregnancy and are called “medication” abortions - meaning they’re done by taking pills. According to Planned Parenthood, mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is first administered to end the pregnancy, then misoprostol - the drug some El Paso women are reportedly getting in Juarez - is administered to expel the fetus from the body.

Laster said that very early in a pregnancy, misoprostol alone can, in some cases, end a pregnancy by stimulating the cervix. But if it doesn’t, she said, surgery might be needed.

Laster said the actual abortion drug, RU-486, is unavailable in Mexico outside of Mexico City and difficult to get even there. She added that the dosage of misoprostol being sold in Juarez pharmacies costs about as much as a medication abortion in her clinic - $540.

Controversy over Texas’ House Bill 2 appears to have sown confusion over which Texas abortion clinics have closed, which have remained open and which have closed and then reopened.

For example, when Reproductive Services announced that it was reopening in a new location at 1511 E. Missouri Ave., an advocacy group, the Center for Reproductive Rights, issued a statement that seemed to imply that it was the only abortion clinic in El Paso.

“Reproductive Services reopening their doors means the women of El Paso and West Texas can once again access safe and legal reproductive health care options that they need and deserve,” the statement said.

Martinez, of the Hilltop Clinic, wants women to know the facility at 500 E. Schuster Ave. has remained open all along.

Such has not been the case for most Texas clinics since passage of HB 2. The number of clinics in the state has dropped from 41 to 18 and is expected to drop further - to 10 or fewer - if the Supreme Court rules that HB 2 does not place an undue burden on a woman’s right to an abortion.

In court, backers of the Texas law have argued that its intent is to protect women’s health. But former Gov. Rick Perry, who signed the law, has said it was intended to make abortions more difficult to get.

House Bill 2 has two provisions that abortion-rights groups say are forcing clinics to close and thus restricting access to abortion.

One requires that doctors in abortion clinics have admitting privileges in a local hospital.

The requirement is a Catch-22 for abortion providers, former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse wrote in a column earlier this month.

“The extremely low complication rate (from abortions) is a reason that doctors who limit their practice to abortion can’t get hospital admitting privileges,” she wrote.

“Many hospitals require doctors to admit a certain number of patients in order to maintain privileges. One Dallas clinic was forced to close in June after 36 years because its medical director, while initially offered admitting privileges, couldn’t meet the requirement to send 48 patients a year to the hospital. Even the more-common, 10-patient requirement is impossible for abortion providers to meet.”

House Bill 2 also requires abortion clinics to upgrade their facilities to hospital-like standards.

Martinez, of the Hilltop Clinic, said it can’t afford to do so.

Reproductive Services referred a question about whether it could meet the standard to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which said in a statement last month said that if the Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge or upholds the Texas abortion law, Reproductive Services will again be forced to close. An architect estimated that it would cost $1.6 million to upgrade the clinic, the Center for Reproductive Rights said.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to take up the challenge to House Bill 2 by the middle of next month. If it does, the court will rule on the matter by the end of its term in July.

Marty Schladen may be reached at 512-479-6606; mschladen@elpasotimes.com; @martyschladen on Twitter.